secret life of bees symbolism essay

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Symbolism in "The Secret Life of Bees": Unveiling Deeper Meanings

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The symbolism of bees, the black madonna: a symbol of strength and identity, the hive: metaphor for community and growth.

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The Secret Life of Bees

Sue monk kidd, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Secret Life: Introduction

Secret life: plot summary, secret life: detailed summary & analysis, secret life: themes, secret life: quotes, secret life: characters, secret life: symbols, secret life: theme wheel, brief biography of sue monk kidd.

Historical Context of The Secret Life of Bees

Other books related to the secret life of bees.

• Full Title: The Secret Life of Bees
• Where Written: Georgia, South Carolina
• When Published: November 8, 2001
• Literary Period: Third-wave feminism fiction
• Genre: Coming-of-age story ( Bildungsroman ), historical fiction
• Setting: Sylvan, South Carolina, 1964
• Climax: August Boatwright reveals that she knew Lily’s mother
• Antagonist: T. Ray Owens / racism in America
• Point of View: First person (Lily Owens)

Extra Credit for The Secret Life of Bees

The movie, of course: In 2008, The Secret Life of Bees was adapted for the big screen. The film, which starred Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning, was a modest box-office success, but didn’t get particularly good reviews.

High school classic: If you went to middle school or high school in the last decade, you were probably assigned The Secret Life of Bees for your English class. A recent survey found that Kidd’s novel is one of the ten most commonly taught high school English texts in America, just a notch below To Kill a Mockingbird and 1984 .

The Secret Life of Bees

By sue monk kidd, the secret life of bees essay questions.

What are some of the ways that bees serve as symbols in Lily's life?

a) Bees symbolize Lily's mother in a number of instances throughout the novel. In Sylvan, Lily feels her mother's presence when swarms of bees enter her room. Her mother's name, Deborah, literally translates as "bee." She follows the path of her mother to Tiburon and finds herself on a honey farm.

b) Bees model human society. Once Lily begins her beekeeper training with August, she quickly learns the ways in which a beehive models the human world. Lily learns to send the bees love, to act like she knows what she's doing, and to avoid angry outbursts--all reasonably good lessons for life.

c) Bees, like Lily, need a queen or a mother figure in order to function. At the beginning of the novel, Lily uses the memory of her mother as this figure. Lily sometimes depends on Rosaleen to fulfill this role, and once in Tiburon, Lily mainly counts on August. Eventually, she turns to all eight of her Tiburon "mothers" to fulfill this need in her life.

Why does Lily feel the need to carry around mouse bones with her?

Answer: Lily finds the mouse bones under her bed when she is storing her mother's belongings. Therefore, Lily makes some odd connection between the mouse bones and the sentimental day on which she learned of her mother's love for her. Lily is in an emotionally heightened state, and she therefore displays some seemingly irrational behavior. After Lily finishes babysitting the mouse bones, she determines that she may have just needed to nurse something. But she might have intuited that the bones could be from a mouse Deborah once saw. In addition, the bones could symbolize Deborah's dead body.

How does Lily's idea of a mother change throughout the novel?

Answer: In the beginning of the novel, Lily associates the idea of "mother" only with a legal and biological connection between a woman and her child. She displays this definition when she dreams of Rosaleen adopting her and becoming her "real mother." But Lily's relationship with her biological mother is based on memories and uncertainty. Lily spends the majority of her childhood attempting to put together the missing pieces in her mother's life. Such curiosity drives Lily to travel to Tiburon. Lily experiences feelings of anger, pity, and grief when she learns the true story of her own mother.

Along the way, Lily also recognizes Our Lady in Chains as the mother of all, including her. She looks to Mary as a mother who brings about the inner strength inside Lily.

Finally, Lily is able to connect the term "mother" to the eight women in Tiburon who have pledged their love, time, and resources to ensure that she has the best life possible. Now, a mother in her mind is someone who takes up the role of a mother.

What does the symbol of Our Lady of Chains provide for the Daughters of Mary?

Answer: The Daughters of Mary, as a group of black women in the South in the 1960s, have clearly been exposed to their share of discrimination. The Boatwright sisters have attended college, but they have not really been able to find appropriate jobs outside of the black community, except for domestic positions within white households. The women feel the societal chains that bind them to a specific status position. The story of Our Lady provides women with hope for advancing their lives regardless of the "chains" that hold them down. Rather, they realize their ability to harness their internal power to enhance their lives.

What are some examples of characters suffering from the "burden of knowing"?

Answer: Lily feels terrible pain when she learns the truth about her mother temporarily leaving her behind. Lily feels that she would rather go back to the point in her life when she could just wonder about the truth, given that the truth hurts her so much. She is forced to move forward with this new information anyway. When she sees the photograph depicting her as a baby interacting with Deborah, however, she then realizes her mother loved her. Suddenly, she is hurt again, but in a new way because she feels a great loss due to her mother's death, and she realizes even more strongly how her own killing of her mother has caused this loss.

May feels a great burden from perceiving the pain of the world. She is weighed down when others are hurt. She does her best to alleviate the pain through rituals like putting notes in the wailing wall. Her family attempts to shield her from knowledge that will hurt her further. But when she does learn the truth about Zach, the burden becomes too heavy, for she also learns what everyone else thinks about her frailty, and she ultimately kills herself.

August, for her part, feels the burden of knowing that Lily's story is false, yet August is willing to shoulder this burden in patience until Lily is ready to talk.

How does Lily's concept of race evolve throughout the novel?

Answer: Lily begins the novel having a close relationship with Rosaleen, her black housekeeper. Still, she does not consider white people and black people to be equal. When she arrives in Tiburon, however, she realizes her own prejudices. She discovers that she has believed that she did not believe that a black person could be as smart as she is. Her idea was disproved once she met August. She also is angry when June discriminates against her for being white. She begins to understand discrimination and begins to be able to empathize. Then, when Lily falls for Zach, she is overcome with curiosity and confusion that she could be attracted to a black man. Yet, she soon realizes her deep and lasting feelings for him and sees him for who he is. Despite their love, Lily learns that they cannot truly be together because of the racial divide between them, and she comes to understand the equality of people as well as the curse of racism. When she is fully accepted by the Daughters of Mary and fully appreciates the Black Madonna, we can say that she has become fully integrated into a world (as yet unrealized elsewhere) where race does not matter for getting along with others in equality and love.

What causes T. Ray to become so bitter and abusive toward Lily?

Answer: Lily's mother and T. Ray had seemingly been truly in love when they first began their relationship. August tells Lily that Deborah said that T. Ray treated her like a princess, and they conceived a child. Deborah finally agreed to marry T. Ray after she was pregnant. Yet, at some point in their marriage, their relationship turned sour. Deborah fell into depression, the cause of which is uncertain. Deborah eventually left her Sylvan home with Lily to escape to Tiburon. Lily determines that when Deborah left, it must have effectively killed T. Ray, which would explain his harsh attitude and bitterness. Additionally, Deborah's death must have caused T. Ray great sadness. Now that Lily has grown to be a teenager, she looks more and more like Deborah. T. Ray takes out his anger towards Deborah on Lily, most clearly demonstrated at the end of the novel, when he actually addresses Lily as Deborah.

Discuss why and how Lily is torn about her sense of home after she arrives in Tiburon.

Answer: Lily loves her new life in Tiburon. She loves her work in the honey house, her relationship with the Boatwright sisters, and her interactions with Zach. She finds herself happy keeping her life a secret and keeping the facade she has created. Yet, despite her utopian life in Tiburon, Lily cannot help but wonder what T. Ray is going through back in Sylvan. After all, despite T. Ray's horrible treatment of Lily, he is the only real parent whom Lily has known. Lily wonders if he misses her, if he worries about her, and if he feels guilty for her treatment of her. Due to this curiosity, Lily surrenders to her urges and calls T. Ray, which ultimately leads him to find her in Tiburon.

How does Lily's relationship with Zach expand her understanding of herself and of society?

Answer: Once Lily begins her relationship with Zach, she learns that she has the capability to love a boy. Additionally, she is fascinated by the thought that she is capable of becoming so enamored by a black boy, a situation she had never thought possible. She begins to become more in touch with her own body as it is evolving into womanhood. She also more clearly understands her feelings, her urges, and her fears. Zach provides her with a solid sense of self, of confidence, and of hope for her future. Lily also learns that society will not always make room for love. Societal views in the time and place of the novel would never permit a relationship between a young interracial couple. Lily learns that despite her mutual feelings with Zach, the nation needs some sort of revolution before it will accept their relationship.

August tells Lily that the most important purpose of life is to "persist in love." How does August exemplify her own words?

Answer: August has lived an unmarried life, but she is in no way alone. From her childhood, she has always been surrounded by the love of her family. August returns that love unconditionally. She discusses her intense love and her sorrow concerning April. She consistently tolerates the narrow-minded opinions of June, and she does everything she can to provide May with as much relief from pain as possible. She is clearly the leader of the family, for she runs the honey farm, bringing in the majority of the income. At the same time, however, August represents the emotional leadership in the family, holding the other women as they cry, laughing with them, and providing unconditional love. At a time when it would be easier not to do so, August provided great love for Deborah, even after she finished working with the Fontanel family. A generation later, August allows Lily to stay with her, persisting in love for Deborah. She loves Lily despite her lies, her anger, and her sadness. She ultimately makes a great sacrifice, taking Lily and Rosaleen into her household, because she loves them. (Remember the positive meanings of the word "august," which also relate to August.)

The Secret Life of Bees Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Secret Life of Bees is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

what happened when shoe arrived at the jail with lily and rosaleen

Franklin hit Rosaleen with his flashlight.

why were bits of paper stuck in the stone wall

It was May's way to dealing with suffering. Whenever May Boatwright hears about something tragic in the world, she writes it down on a piece of paper and slips the paper into the cracks of a stone wall near her house.

Lily finds herself making choices based on signs she interprets, what is she trying to decide based on seeing the crop duster flying over the tops in Tiburon?

In this scene, Lily is trying to decide whether or not she should remain living in an uncertain world filled with questions and fear... or move on... begin her journey of personal identity and self discovery. The flight of the crop-duster serves...

Study Guide for The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees study guide contains a biography of Sue Monk Kidd, literature essays, 100 quiz questions, major themes, characters, a glossary, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Secret Life of Bees
• The Secret Life of Bees Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Secret Life of Bees

Literature essays on The Secret Life of Bees are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

• The Concept of Monomyth in Kidd's Secret Life of Bees
• The Role of Nature in The Secret Life of Bees
• Mother Figures in The Secret Life of Bees
• Pervasive Racism in The Secret Life of Bees
• Love, Forgiveness, Enlightenment: Lily's Journey in The Secret Life of Bees

Lesson Plan for The Secret Life of Bees

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Secret Life of Bees
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Secret Life of Bees Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Secret Life of Bees

• Introduction

Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

Lexi Miller Mrs. Szabados Honors English I 22 May 2023 Symbolism in The Secret Life of Bees The Secret Life of Bees illustrates a captivating story of a girl suffering lots of loss, and has to learn to grow and forgive herself and others throughout the book. The backdrop is set in South Carolina in the 1960’s, contrasting a time of prejudice and the theme of equality with The Civil Rights Movement. The main character, Lily, leaves a broken home and collides with destiny to meet her found family, where she is nurtured and welcomed by a set of black sisters from Lily’s mother’s past. Throughout the story, there are a multitude of examples of symbolism in The Secret Life of Bees. You can see this essay dive into three main examples of symbolism …show more content…

Honey in this story, represents sweetness, healing, and truth. I love how honey is a symbol of truth, because truth is so absolutely profound and meaningful throughout this whole book. Lily arrives at the Boatwright sisters house, which is a thriving business of Black Madonna Honey. And where there is honey, there is the truth. Later in the story, August reveals the truth of the story of Lily’s mother and it is a great watershed of the book. The revealing of the truth in this book is such an important part of the plot and the story that it is beautiful how one of the main symbols represents such an important aspect of this story. The honey house also brings lots of sweet moments, feelings, and relationships into Lily’s life. The symbolism of the honey representing sweetness reflects how much sweetness and loving feelings Lily has towards the Boatwright sisters, Zach, Rosaleen, the Daughters of Mary, Neil, and everyone she meets in Tiburon, South Carolina. It is such a huge shift of feelings and experiences from Lily’s abusive father, T.Ray, on the peach farms to the sweet interactions she has with everyone in …show more content…

It reflects the feminine empowerment that is omnipresent within the pink house. August has a black owned business in the 1960’s, and it is so absolutely booming that she is backed up with orders, and needs Zach and everyone else to help her out with orders. That is not an easy task for a black woman in the 1960’s. The fact that the Daughters of Mary and the Boatwright sisters worship something that expresses something within them is wonderful. They use the Black Mary as a crucial proponent of their spiritual journey forward, and look to her in times of hardship. Mary is also said to be the paragon of a very nurturing, abundant, and loving maternal figure. There are mother figures that enter Lily’s life that represent these traits of The Black Mary. I believe that the significance of The Black Mary is most definitely tied to the fact that Lily’s mother left her life when she was little. This mother figure enters her life as her original mother figure leaves her life. The Black Mary is the backbone of feminine strength and love, and she propels the character’s journey through life, self-discovery, and acceptance

Examples Of Juxtaposition In The Secret Life Of Bees

In American writer Sue Monk Kidd's fiction novel The Secret Life of Bees, the reader is introduced to Lily Owens, a naive and unfortunate character longing for her mother's absence. Growing up with an abusive father, T Ray, Lily is kept miserable until a stroke of confidence allows her to run away with the only person on her side, Rosaleen. Through multiple influences and revelations of truth, she can develop individually with the help of her new family, the Boatwrights, transforming her into a profound and confident character. One of the major influences Lily undergoes throughout the book is the religious rituals August and the Boatwrigts assign her. An example of this is the observance of a religious statue, The Black Mary, worshiped by the

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd opens in South Carolina during the 1960s, in the towns of Sylvan and Tiburon. The main protagonist Lily Melissa Owens, life has been shaped around her blurred memory of her mother, Deborah, after she was killed. When Lily’s black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, is arrested for insulting three racist men in their town of Sylvan. Then, Lily decides to spring them both free: herself escaping her neglectful and abusive father, T. Ray, and helping Rosaleen escape from the jail. The duo then escape to Tiburon - a town that they believes holds the secret to the past of her mother.

What Role Does Lily Play In The Secret Life Of Bees

“She was black as could be, twisted like driftwood from being out in the weather, her face a map of all the storms and journeys she’d been through. Her right arm was raised as if she was pointing the way, except her fingers were closed in a fist. It gave her a serious look, like she could straighten you out if necessary.” In this quotation, from the beginning of chapter four, Lily describes the black Mary statue.

The Secret Life of Bees: Metaphor & Symbolism Audre Lorde a revolutionary Black feminist once said “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” The book “The Secret Life of Bees” is about a little girl named Lily who is haunted by the memories of her mother and chooses to run away from her dad T.Ray with her caretaker Rosaleen. They both end up at a pink house in South Carolina and began to live with the Boatwright sisters. In the novel “The Secret Life of Bees” Sue Monk Kidd portrays the theme of the irrationally of racism through lily and metaphor and symbolism.

What do bees have to do with a young girl enduring a most unfortunate family situation living in the south? Fourteen year old Lily is painfully aware that her cruel father doesn’t care about her. She longs for her loving mother who she vaguely remembers was always there to take care of her. Her ignorance of any other way of life causes her to despair of all hope. In the book The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd the main character, Lily is torn between experience of her painful family situation with an abusive father; ignorance of her mother and a better life available to her.

Symbols In The Secret Life Of Bees

Bees are a mysterious species who have an incredible life that we know nothing about; in connection we live crazy, mysterious, lives with ups and downs; goods and bads. The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd is an extraordinary story about a teenager Lily Owens, her abusive father, her mother, and numerous friends. Lily lost her mother at a young age, so she runs away; she ends up living with a loving family of women and finds mothers within them. She learns about friendships, overcoming, forgiveness, and love. In The secret Life of Bees the author shows theme through conflict and symbolism.

Pride In The Secret Life Of Bees

The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd follows Lily, a white girl, after running away with Rosaleen, a black woman, to the Boatwright house. During the story, the insight that we should find love becomes increasingly obvious. To begin, we should find love because it builds resilience. Having the love of others helps in staying resolute during hardships. Toward the beginning of the book, Rosaleen tries to register to vote and ends up going to jail.

The Secret Lwarfe Of Bees Character Analysis Essay

Throughout the duration of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret LIfe of Bees, the characters of her novel undergo various difficulties. The novel revolves around Lily as she learns about her past and tries to discover more about her long-dead mother. Additionally, the novel features extensive character interaction as Lily and her companion Rosaleen take residence at a farm in Tiburon, South Carolina, and meet three sisters: May, June, and August.

Theme Of The Life You Save May Be Your Own By Flannery O Connor

O’Conner uses a great deal of symbolism throughout the story in order to create the theme that society is lacking holiness and becoming corrupt because of its immorality. These symbols include the three most important characters in the story, Lucynell, her daughter, and Shiftlet. The courthouse, the car, and the sunset are also symbols in the story that help contribute to the theme. O’Conner utilizes multiple people, places, and objects that represent larger ideas to construct the story’s theme that people value material items more than God, and this misjudgment has created a morally misguided society.

Effects Of Realization In The Secret Life Of Bees

14) In this quote from the book at the very beginning one is able to see that Lily had this admiration and longing for her late mother and just wanted a sense of her to remember her by. Throughout the story one is able to see that as Lily comes to learn who her mother was and what she did she starts to create some sort of hatred towards her mother. The way she thinks about her mother changes as she comes to hear all the events that played out in her mother's life from a character named August who was important to Lily’s mother and Lily herself. “ “I guess one day it finally dawned on her: oh, yeah,

Atmosphere Of Fear In The Haunting Of Hill House

Symbolism is the idea that something is being represented as an abstract idea beyond its literal meaning. An example of symbolism from the novel is the color red. The color red appears frequently throughout the novel, such as, “All of them stood in silence for a moment and looked at HELP ELEANOR COME HOME ELEANOR written in shaky red letters on the wallpaper over Theodora’s bed” (Jackson 114). There was also the red sweater, red sandals, and red nail polish painted onto Eleanor’s toes. The symbolic significance of the color red is that it represents blood and violence.

Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

“That night i looked at the jar of bees on my dresser. The poor creatures perched on the bottom barely moving, obviously pining away for flight.” (27). The bees in the jar barely moving symbolize their mourning. The mourning of lily is very much like the bees in the

The Secret Life Of Bees Reflection Essay

“A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love” (Connie May Fowler). This quote reflects the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd because the protagonist in the story, Lily Owens, her mother have died when she was four years old and she didn’t feel loved by her abusive father, T. Ray Owens, until she met the Boatwrights family with the housekeeper, Rosaleen, and stayed with them. The Boatwrights family are the three black sisters who are August, May, and June. This novel took place in Sylvan and Tiburon, South Carolina, where Lily grew up and where she found the answer to her questions.

Epigrams By Lily Owen Chapter Summary

Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father T-Ray, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping. Bees operate on many levels in this story: The epigrams at the beginning of each chapter concern bees; the bees in Lily's room reach out to her and show her she must leave; and the bees at the Boatright house are instrumental in teaching about community, life, and death.

The main example in which Kidd used throughout The Secret Life of Bees novel was with the symbolism of Lily by bees. When this book was written its purpose was to represent racism within the US around the civil rights movement. But racism is really just taking two different parties which appear different but are equally smart, can perform the same tasks, and are emotionally equal, Caucasians and African Americans. So the real importance of the way Kidd uses bees as a symbol within the novel is to understand what Kidd is representing at a larger scale, not just within the story itself, racism present within the

More about Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

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The Secret Life Of Bees Symbolism Essay

Show More What would you do if you were at fault for your mother’s death? Lily Melissa Owens, the main character, is searching for information about her mother. Lily accidently shot her when she was little. She is trying to figure out more about that event and events leading up to that day. Lily's father,T.Ray, is no help either. She meets the Boatwrights and everything changes. Sue Monk Kidd uses many symbols throughout the novel to help readers understand her themes. In The Secret Life of Bees, the author uses the symbols of water, Mary, and photographs to teach Lily and the readers important lessons about life. In the novel water was used to symbolized a new beginning or forgiveness. When Rosaleen and Lily got in a dispute they later rinsed off …show more content… They also are a source of validation of the love from her mother . When Lily found the picture of Mary in her mother’s belongings she was determined to find what it meant. She then found a location on the back and instantly wanted to figure out where it could lead her. When she finally arrived in the small town she saw a label with the picture on it. She finally found what she was looking for; a source of information on her mother. After being told that her mother left her she doubted the love her mom had for her. After August showed Lily a photo of her and her mom that changed. When Lily looked at the picture she told the reader, “I looked down at the picture, then closed my eyes. I figured May must've made it to heaven and explained to my mother about the sign I wanted. The one that would let me know I was loved” (Kidd 276). She could feel the love that her mom had for her while looking at the image. The series of photographs have helped Lily understand her mother because she has very little memories with her. Water, Mary and photographs are all symbols used in The Secret Life of Bees. Water was used to signify a new beginning or forgiveness. Throughout the entire story Mary teaches the women to believe in themselves. Photographs help Lily remember her mother because she never really had time to make memories and remember them. Sue Monk Kidd used symbolism to assist the reader in understanding the overall themes in the

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Most people form impressions based on the race of a person. Do you? The Secret Life of Bees is a story of a fourteen-year-old girl who runs away from her mean and unloving father to find information about her mother's past. Lily and her housekeeper, Rosaleen, stay with the Boatwright sisters, three African American beekeepers. The setting takes place in South Carolina in 1964, a time when racism was provoked by the civil rights movement and often times turned violent.…

The Importance Of Flowers In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Flowers in the context of the watermark represent Ruth’s life in her home. Her life is dull because her family lacks familial love. Ruth also is deprived of sexual love, but she still clings on to Macon, her husband. Flowers don’t have the capability to leave, so they are patient and still, and wait for love and care in order to grow. The flower shows that Ruth is complacent and is using her motherly right to force herself live in a household where she is unhappy and deprived of many rights, showing that women are weak when it comes to independence over…

How Does Lily Change In The Secret Life Of Bees

In the novel, The Secret Life Of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens is a teenage girl that decides to run away from her abusive father and moves to Tiburon. She experiences a journey where she tries to learn her mother’s history and more about her mother’s death. South Carolina to search for someone who she believes to know her deceased mother. Lily learns to forgive others and herself in order to become independent and live her life the way she wants to live it.…

What Does The Flowers Symbolize In To Kill A Mockingbird

Mayella is hoping for a better and more pleasing life since she is keeping these elegant flowers. The geraniums show that the dream of a better reality can happen even to individuals viewed as less fortunate. Mayella shows her own particular want or better presence through her geraniums. The geraniums represent her dream of wanting something better for herself. Finally, Lee uses flowers to symbolize character identities through the Mrs. Radley’s canna flowers.…

The Wailing Wall In Jerusalem In The Secret Life Of Bees

The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem When August was telling Lily about May she said, “Everything just comes to her- all the suffering out there- and she feels as if it’s happening to her” (Kidd 95). The Secret Life of Bees is a story about a girl named Lily who runs away from home to find a family called the Boatwright’s. They are cultured woman who are like mothers to Lily.…

The Secret Life Of Bees Movie And Book Comparison Essay

The Secret Life of Bees is a novel about a 14 year old girl, Lily, living in a time of segregation. She grows up in the time of the Civil Rights act. After reading The Secret Life of Bees book, we watched and compared it to the movie. A movie based on a book wouldn’t follow the exact plotline. There were key differences, but the movie followed a similar plotline.…

Streetcar Named Desire Flower

In literature flowers often represent beauty and youth. They are used to show how individuals crave their past youth. Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the flowers help Blanche mask her aging, loss of purity, and beauty. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the flowers represent how Blanche wants to hold onto her youth.…

The Kite Runner Symbolism Analysis

Many people have something sentimental to them that acts more than just an object because it develops a meaning in their lives. These objects can be described as symbols. A symbol is a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. Often writers use a technique called symbolism which is the use of symbols in literature that gives a deeper meaning in context to an object, person, situation, or event. Symbols can be used as a strong tool to help drive a plot in a novel.…

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Secret Life Of Bees Symbolism

The Duet of Themes and Symbolism Imagine a play cast. Include everyone, the crew and actors. A feeling of unity pulses through the air right before the show begins. There is a sense of harmony and solidarity. This community is a feeling Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd never knows until she is 14. The Secret Life of Bees takes place in the 1960’s in Virginia. It focuses on Lily, a young girl with dreams of finding out about her dead mother. Eventually, she runs away from her abusive father T. Ray. Her heart takes her to the Boatwright sisters, three African-American women who take her in. There Lily learns about the abilities of a group of women and their healing power. That nurturing force is symbolized by the Black …show more content…

Lily’s first meeting with the black Mary occurs when she meets the Boatwright sisters: August, June, and May. At that moment Lily feels the nurturing of a mother and a deluge of emotions rain down on her. She could feel all sides of her, favorable and detrimental because “that’s what the black Mary did to me, made me feel my glory and my shame at the same time,” (Kidd 71). Lily, for being barely an adolescent, at first is not capable of grasping the concept of people being both angelic and corrupt. At the beginning of the story she sees T. Ray as the human embodiment of evil. Counter to her initial beliefs, Lily learns that people are not as simple as she wants them to be. This is largely the result of the mothering force of August, which is a more physical representation of what the black Mary embodies. The black Mary illustrates Lily starting to see the world from a multidimensional perspective. In the same manner as the black Mary representing a mother for Lily, she represents a mother-like figure to all the Daughters of Mary. While the other Daughters may not have been missing mothers, the black Mary creates a family-like binding between them, keeping them together throughout even them most poignant times. The black Mary is a mother to all and all Lily wants in the Boatwright house is to be seen as one of them. Ultimately, “they didn’t even think of me being different,” (Kidd 209). This acceptance

Examples Of Character Development In The Secret Life Of Bees

Lily starts off stuck living in an unloving, abusive household and decides to free herself from the negative atmosphere that she had been living in her whole life. Lily is perpetually abused by her father. He forces her to kneel on Martha White's, gets exasperated every time she speaks, and yells at her for no reason. Lily is not the only one noticing the terrible treatment, Rosaleen does too. Once after Lily had to kneel on the Martha White's Rosaleen said to her, “Look at you, child. Look what he’s done to you” (Kidd 25). Noticing the unloving treatment Lily gets, Rosaleen knew that their household was demoralizing place for Lily to be in, which is why she didn’t question when Lily when she later runs away. Lily one day realizes she needs to do something about her horrible life at home. While sitting in her room she hears a voice in her

Examples Of Allusions In Secret Life Of Bees

An allusion is a literary device to express a reference to another piece of media. Allusions are used frequently in A Secret life of Bees to influence the characters personality traits and underlying story themes. In the novel, Sue Mon Kidd uses constant allusions to the Virgin Mary. She writes using Lily’s voice, “Looking back on it now, I want to say the bees were sent to me. I want to say they showed up like the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary, setting events in motion I could never have guessed.” Page 2. This is an example of a biblical allusion. The Virgin Mary was the virgin mother of Jesus Christ. She was a 1st-century BC Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth according to the New Testament and the Holy Quran. In the novel Secret Life of Bees, she is often cited as “the blessed Mary” or “blessed among women” by the followers of Mary.

Allusion And Personification In The Secret Life Of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd uses allusion and personification in her book The Secret Life of Bees to help create an image for the setting of the book.

The Journey of Lily in Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees

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The Black Mary made Lily think about her life and what could be done to make it better. It made Lily think about the positives and negatives, and that she now had people to relate and connect to.

Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the color blue, a symbol of love, allows Lily to differentiate between people who truly love her. Lily believes that for someone to truly love her, they must know the most trivial detail of her: her favorite color, blue. For example, Lily, in an argument with her father, blatantly asks, “do you know what my favorite color is?”, however, her father responds with,”I know one thing, and that’s I’m going to find you…”. Although one would expect a father to know such fact, Terrence, her father, does not know Lily’s favorite color and does not take the time to even think of the color’s importance. The color blue represents a fatherly and motherly love that Lily obviously lacks; due to her lack

The Secret Life Of Bees By Lily Owens

Lily Owens represents the main character of The Secret Life of Bees. Lily is a fourteen year old white girl who lives only with her father, T-Ray, and African-American nanny/caregiver and only friend, Rosaleen. Together, they live on a peach farm in South Carolina.

The Secret Life Of Bees Setting Analysis

The idea of having a secret life is enough to intrigue almost anyone.  With a title like The Secret Life of Bees, the reader cannot help but wonder what the secret is, and how it plays into the story.  As children, we all read books that talked about an escape to a mystical place that allowed the characters to escape from reality for a while.  In many cases, the reader viewed this as an escape they also desired, but most times could not fully relate to the character’s experiences.  Nonetheless, the setting of the story was intriguing.  Sue Monk Kidd uses setting to influence her characters by setting The Secret Life of Bees in the south, having it take place in the 1960’s, and by creating characters that depend on the setting for their happiness.

What Is The Meaning Of The Secret Life Of Bees

In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd creates an allusion to the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, to illustrate the impact of the Ku Klux Klan’s scheme to terrorize social activists, on Lily. In order to protest integration, the Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite underneath the girl's bathroom in the Baptist church, which resulted in a tragedy that stole the lives of four innocent children. Throughout the course of the plot, while exploring the wailing wall and the slips of paper placed into the wall, Lily finds a slip which expresses, “Birmingham, Sept 15, four little angels dead” (98). The phrase “four little angels” displays that the slip of paper refers to children. Therefore, the date on the slip of paper, September

Secret Life Of Bees Juxtapositions

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a novel about a girl named Lily. Lily lives in South Carolina in 1964. She has an abusive father and a mother who died 10 years ago. Rosaleen, Lily’s mother figure and caretaker, got into trouble and got into jail. Lily then decided to escape with Rosaleen to Tiburon, South Carolina. There they find the beekeeping Boatwright sisters (August, June and May) who hold the secret to Lily’s mother’s past. In the book The Secret Life of Bees there are many sad negative events; however, every negative event has a positive outcome.

Lily Owens Quotes With Page Numbers

Lily overhears a conversation between June Boatwright and August, where June explains that the color of her skin matters and that she does not belong in the Boatwright house “but she’s white, August” (5, 87). Lily “[wants] to make [August] love [her] so [she could stay in the pink house] forever” but she knows that she will never truly “belong”, because she is not the same as theirs. Another example of this is during the weekly meeting of the Daughter of Mary, each member and sister would go up to the Statue of Mary and touch her heart. Lily took part in this ritual and as it was her turn to go touch Mary’s heart, June turned off the music and lily again realized “I am not one of [them]” (6, 111). Lily desires to be a part of their family, but she struggles with the feeling of being an outsider. At the end of the novel, lily is faced with a demand from her father T.Ray to come “home”, lily then realizes that physical home is not “home”, she belongs in the Boatwright house “ Lily can have a home here for as long as she wants” (14,

What Is Lily's Determination In The Secret Life Of Bees

Throughout the novel The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the characters are determined to achieve a goal or get some answers in some way. The novel’s main character and narrator is Lily Owens, a fourteen year old girl; the story is set in South Carolina during the summer of 1964. During this summer, Lily searches for answers about her mother’s life. Hardships cause people to show their determination in life because they strive to achieve a specific goal as demonstrated by Lily, T. Ray, and Rosaleen.

The Spiritual Growth of Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees

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The Secret Life of Bees delineates an inspirational story in which the community, friendship and faith guide the human spirit to overcome anything. The story follows Lily Owens, a 14 year old girl who desperately wants to discover the cause of her mothers death. Her father T. Ray gives her no answers, which leads their maid, Rosaleen, to act as her guardian. Together, Lily and Rosaleen run away to Tiburon, South Carolina and find a welcoming community. It is in Tiburon that Lily learns many life lessons, including many about herself. In her novel The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd explores a theme of spiritual growth through Lily's search for home as well as a maternal figure.

Similarities Between The Secret Life Of Bees

When Lily finally decides to run away from T.Ray to Tiburon with Rosaleen, the housemaid, in the movie this act is shown more as her wanting to get away from him and not so much as her being curious about what really is in Tiburon, South Carolina. Also, while at the Boatwrights house Lily did not act in a curious manner, but was mostly doing what she could to blend in so she was accepted, and not kicked out. When T.Ray tells Lily that her mother left her as a child, Lily refuses to believe so. She knows that it was just another punishment he uses to torment her, and only seeks to find the real truth at the very end of the movie. When he tries to take her away from the Boatwrights, she asks him before he leaves, “Did you lie about my mother leaving me.” The quality of Lily’s curiosity is lost in the movie. Lily’s life is represented more as a drama than her being curious and seeking answers about her mother, and the black Madonna. Because the movie lacks the value of curiosity it takes away from what the true story

Secret Life Of Bees Essay

Every girl goes through a time when she is trying to find herself- find out who she is. Every girl tries to build a personality; a sense of self. She is filling in the puzzle of her with puzzle pieces that don’t have a determined shape. The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd is a book about this searching. The main character, a teenage girl, is going through this time when she is trying to find out who she is. In The Secret Life of Bees, this girl, Lily Owens, is living unhappily. Her mother was killed when she was very young, and her father is cruel. Lily decided she had had enough and runs away. The Secret Life of Bees is a story about a girl who is finding herself, finding out who she is and who she wants to be. This leads to a journey where she finds a place where she can thrive, and develop her sense of self.

The Secret Life Of Bees Themes Essay

Emanuel agrees in her paper “The archetypal mother: the Black Madonna in Sue Monk Kidd 's The Secret Life of Bees” saying that “[Kidd] speaks at length about a woman’s plight in both conventional society,”(Catherine B. Emanuel). August understands this progress of injustice. While talking to Lily about her life, August confesses that she did love a man. “I loved him enough. I just loved my freedom more”(146). This shows that August had to decide whether she wanted to have her freedom or to be married. Kidd writing about a black woman that choose a career over the traditional lifestyle of a women reinforce the notice that anyone can improve and innovate the world as much as white man. In the novel, August shows Lily that a woman can do anything a man can do by breaking from conventional ideas that a women can live a successful life without a man is normal. Laurie Grobman agreed in her essay in “Teaching Cross-Racial Texts: Cultural Theft in ‘The Secret Life of Bees” by saying that “August fits Levy’s description of the ‘model of female creativity, the repository of women 's history and the provider of mother enduring care,”(21). August is a role model to encourage women to break the mold of what a woman is supposed to be.